NYU student to film in Lake Placid

Motorists should expect delays on Main Street

June 26, 2012

LAKE PLACID - A student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts will be shooting segments of his upcoming film "Fort Apache" here this week.

Lake Placid village officials have approved a request by filmmaker Addison Mehr to shut down Main Street to motorized traffic at 8 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday for a total of four, 10-minute traffic stoppages.

The traffic delays will last no longer than 10 minutes each, according to village Mayor Craig Randall.

Mehr had originally asked for traffic stoppages in the evening, but village officials were concerned about interfering with downtown business.

"Most of the shooting takes place within the theater." He said. "What he's asking for is to place three period cars - 1940s vehicles - in the spaces directly in front of the Palace (Theatre). There would be no infringement of any other parking spaces."

Traffic will be detoured at the intersection of Main Street and Mirror Lake Drive, near the High Peaks Resort and the other will redirect traffic at the intersection of Main Street and Hayes Street.

"The timeframes need to be adhered to very strictly," Randall said. "It's up to the filmmaker to make that work."

Some trustees expressed concern about interfering with morning commutes for motorists, but Trustee Jason Leon said the board needs to "open our perspective and create energy" for people who want to utilize the village "whether it's shooting a film or running a race.

"I'm all for it," Leon said.

"They do this in New York City, we ought to be able to figure it out here," Randall added.

Mehr's film is an adaptation of a short story of the same name by Alan Heathcock. The story first appeared in Heathcock's 2011 collection "Volt."

Mehr grew up in the Adirondacks and attended Westport Central School. His film is about 14-year-old Walt Freely, a boy from the small town of Krafton who, in Mehr's words, is leaving the "naive world of children" and entering a "savage world of adults." Mehr said the film includes themes of anxiety, destruction and emerging sexuality.